Filing unit



Dec. 29, 1959 H. L. CARLSTON 2,913,921

FILINGLUNIT Filed May 9, 1956 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 I 0| /-/E 2 I0 O: T/ 1L\0| I0. e- 1 r i0 f 0 l gs-Q 0| IO ;IZ:::: J 00.,0000000000000000000 29 2FIGS 30 K2? 4 29 O I DESCRIPTION IO lNVE NTOR H.L. CAR LSTO N ATTORNEYDec. 29, 1959 H. L. CARLSTON 2,918,921

' FILING'UNIT Filed May 9, 1956 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. I?) 1 4* 15Wooooooooc oooood s20 B2 825 INVENTOR H.L.CARLSTON United States PatentFILING UNIT Herald L. Carlston, Salt Lake City, Utah Application May 9,1956, Serial No. 583,827

1 Claim. (Cl. 129-161) The present invention relates to informationcarrying cards and more particularly to filing units or cards which maybe separated by means of perforations in the margins thereof. Thisseparation is preferably to be manually accomplished with the use of asorting needle. No machine sorting device is therefore needed in thesegregation of the filing units or cards.

The invention also relates to a filing unit having a pocket which thecard forms one wall of the pocket or in which an envelope separate fromthe card is provided, such pockets or envelope providing means forreceiving clippings, photographs, etc., and the filing units areprovided with means for separating certain units from other unitsincluding the material in the pockets of the units according toperforations or notches in such filing units.

Heretofore various types of information carrying cards have beenprovided and some of such cards have been provided with apertures ornotches to assist in separating certain of the cards from other cardsbased on classification of material on such cards. In accordance with myprevious application on a filing unit, Serial No. 506,268, filed May 5,1955, a pocket having a wall of transparent material was formed on acard so that additional material could be carried with the card withoutrequiring reference to a separate file, thereby reducing the timerequired for collecting necessary information, such as employmentrecords and the like. Although the invention according to the previousapplication has worked out satisfactorily, the pocket used was ofreduced size with respect to the card, since the pocket formed oftransparent material was entirely within the perforated margins and/ ornotches which determined the selection.

An object of the present invention is to overcome the problems of theprior art and to provide a large pocket on a card for the reception ofadditional material without objectionably increasing the bulk thereof.

A further object is to provide an envelope open at one edge forreceiving information in a readily available condition.

Another object is to provide an envelope with selecting perforationstherein so one envelope may be separated from others and each envelopemay be used to collect information which is thereby readily availablefor use.

Other and further objects will be apparent as the description proceedsand upon reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:

Fig. 1 is a rear elevation of an information card according to thepresent invention with a transparent pocket on the rear surface;

Fig. 2, a section taken on line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3, a section taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4, a section similar to Fig. 2 of a modification in which theperforations are omitted at the bottom of the card and the envelopeoverlaps the bottom and side edges of the front of the card;

Fig. 5, a section taken on line 5-5 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 6, a front elevation of a transparent envelope Patented. Dec. 291959 open at its top and provided with perforations along its top andside edges with an information card therein related to the perforationin the envelope;

Fig. 7, a section taken on line 77 of Fig. 6;

Fig. 8, a section taken on line 8-8 of Fig. 6;

Fig. 9, an oblique perspective view of a number of Visi-Record cards orfiling units supported on bars of a file cabinet or drawer, someVisi-Record cards being in envelopes and other cards having pocketswithin the card outline, and some cards having rows of perforations forseparation, the Visi-Recor file unit being provided with notches at thebottom for embracing supporting rods (shown in oblique phantom outline)so that one Visi-Record filing unit with its envelope or pocket may beoffset to another exposing the identifying information on each unit;

Fig. 10, a section taken on line 10-10 of Fig. 9 of an imperforateVisi-Record filing unit;

Fig. 10A, a section taken on line 18A-10A of Fig. 9 showing a pocketfixed on the rear surface of a Visi- Recor card above the bottom;

Fig. 11, a section taken on line 11-11 of Fig. 9;-

Fig. 12, a fragmentary horizontal section similar to Fig. 11, showinganother manner in which the side edges of the front and rear panels ofthe transparent envelope may be secured together;

Fig. 12A, a fragmentary section taken on line 12A- 12A of Fig. 9 showinganother form of securing the envelope panels together and showing theselection apertures;

Fig. 13, a front elevation of an open top envelope having selectionperforations on such open top with the envelope having an identifyingcard therein, the envelope and card having binding receiving apertureson one side edge for use with a loose-leaf type notebook or hinder;

Fig. 14, a section taken on line 14-14 of Fig, 13;

Fig. 15, a section taken on line 15-15 of Fig. 13;

Fig. 16, a section similar to Fig. 15 showing a modification in theconstruction of the envelope;

Fig. 17, a modification of a filing unit including an envelope formed byfolding a piece of transparent material and securing two of its openedges together by means of transparent adhesive tape;

Fig. 18, a section taken on line 18-18 of Fig. 17;

Fig. 18A, a section similar to Fig. 18 of a modification in which two ofthe unfolded edges are secured by adhesive directly on the abutting edgeportions of the layers of transparent material;

Fig. 19, a section taken on line 19-19 of Fig. 17;

Fig. 19A, a section taken on line 19A-19A of Fig. 18A; I

Fig. 20, another form of filing unit including a duplex card folded atits mid-portion and provided with additional pockets formed of a sheetof plastic folded on the same line as said duplex card and secured atits ends to the duplex card; i

Fig. 21, a section taken on line 21-21 of Fig. 20;

,Fig. 22, a section taken on line 22-22 of Fig. 20;

Fig. 22A, a section similar to Fig. 22 of a modification in which thetransparent material forming the additional pockets extends to the endextremities of the duplex card;

Fig. 23, an elevation of a further modification in which a card isembraced by a folded sheet of transparent Mylar material and secured inposition by transparent adhesive tape; 9

Fig. 24, a section taken on line 24-24 of Fig. 23;

Fig. 25, a section taken on line 25-25 of Fig. 23; and

Fig. 25A, a fragmentary section similar to Fig. 25

H of a modification in which the transparent material is secureddirectly to the card by adhesive on the end edge portions.

Briefly stated, the present invention includes filing units, such ascards with pockets formed with the card section as a wall or with thepockets being independent of the card so that additional information,such as photographs, newspaper clippings and the like may be filed withsuch card. The cards with the information associated therewith aremanually separated by means of a needle on the basis of marginalperforations either in the card or in the envelope or both, so thatcards having a certain type of information may be readily selected fromothers without requiring reading of the information and selection isobtained by the use of needles which pass through the perforationsraising the card with its pocket and/or envelope with the perforationsfrom associated cards having notches at the location of the selectingperforations.

Referring more particularly to Figs. 1, 2 and 3 of the drawings, aconventional needle sorting le card 2t having identifying information onone surface 21 has a layer of transparent material such as Mylar 22secured to the card along its bottom and two sides by means of adhesivematerial 23 or the like around the bottom and side margin. Perforations24 are provided on the top, both sides and bottom margins on the card 29and transparent material 22. The adhesive 23 securely maintains the sideedges and bottom of the card and transparent material together to form apocket 25 defined by the card 20, the transparent material 22 and themarginal edges, the pocket receiving other material 26, such asnewspaper clippings, photographs, microfilm, sound records, or the like,corresponding to other information on the said one face of the card. Itwill also be apparent that some information may be printed on thetransparent material.

The adhesive action may be obtained from thermoplastic characteristicsof certain transparent materials 22 which may be secured by heat in awell-known manner and the pocket 25 formed by the transparent material22 and card 20 is shown expanded in an exaggerated manner and when thereis no information in the pocket it will be understood that thetransparent material remains in approximately smooth contact with theadjacent surface of the card 20 and that both the face without thepocket and the face of the card with the pocket are I smooth to permiteasy sliding of one card on another in handling and separating. Onemanner of separating the cards is by the provision of one or morenotches 26 formed by cutting the material of the margin into aperforation 26 and when a key-sort needle is passed through perforationsin a number of cards the cards having perforations at that particularlocation may be raised by the needle and the cards with a notch at thatparticular location will remain or will drop out from the cards which donot have such notch, thereby separating the notched cards from the cardswith only perforations.

In Fig. 5, a modified form of card with a pocket includes a conventionalfiling card 27 on which a sheet of transparent material 28 of largersize than the card is applied with the side margins 29 and bottom margin30 folded over against the front of the card 27 and secured in suchmarginal portion by a suitable adhesive 31 or by means of a plasticcharacteristic of the transparent material or by other suitable means.Various types of information may be collected in the pocket 32 formed bythe transparent material and the card 27 and such cards may be separatedin a manner similar to that previously described.

In the modification shown in Figs. 6 to 8, inclusive, an envelope isformed from a sheet of transparent material folded along a transverseline 33 defining the bottom thereby forming a front wall 34 and a backwall 35 and the side edges of such walls being secured together by anadhesive 36. Perforations 37 are provided in the side margins and topmargin of the pocket and certain of such perforations may be modified toform notches 38 for the purpose of selection of the proper envelope; onecorner may be removed by a diagonal cut 39 to serve as an index mark toassure the proper association of similar envelopes in the arrangementfor the sorting operation. Within the envelope a principal informationcontaining card it) is insertable and such card may carry variousmarkings including squares or lines if to indicate the meaning of aparticular notch or perforation and such card may include otherinformation relative to the material being indexed and it will beevident that the pocket formed by the envelope may be used to receiverelated material, such as photographs, newspaper clippings, letters ofrecommendation, or the like.

The modification shown in Figs. 68 inclusive may have two rows ofperforations such as those shown at 54A and 545 in the intermediate card54 in Fig. 9 for special sorting advantages and the insert may becorrespondingly printed to identify both rows of sorting perforations.

in Figs. 9 to 12 inclusive, other uses of open top envelopes are shownfor providing pockets through which the contents may be observed. Oneform of a record filing sheet known as Visi-Record 42 includes a backpanel 43 of the full size of the record sheet, a lower front panel 44which is integral with the back panel being connected thereto by a fold45 at the bottom edge. The front bottompanel 44 and the rear panel 43are adhesively bonded by an adhesive 46 along the side edges therebyforming a pocket, the contents of which cannot be seen since theVisi-Record is normally made of opaque material. A top front panel 47 isconnected by a fold 48 to the top of the rear panel 43 as shown in Fig.10 and the top panel and the adjacent portion of the rear panel areformed to provide an oblique edge 49 along with identification material50, such as the name and social security number of a person isinscribed. The bottom edge of the Visi-Record is provided with aplurality of notches 51 which normally embrace supporting rods 52 (shownin phantom) of a filing cabinet and other Visi-Record sheets 53 and 54(shown in phantom) are arranged in offset relation by the arrangement ofthe notches 51 on the supporting rods 52 so that the names will bevisible on the sheets located behind thereby facilitating the desiredselection. Although these sheets have a pocket 55 formed by the lowerfront and rear panels 43 and 44, the contents of such pockets cannot beobserved without removal of the contents from the pocket.

The present improvement includes a transparent envelope 56 having afront wall 57 and rear wall 58 which are connected along a fold line 59by merely folding the material of the front wall against the adjacentmaterial of the rear wall and the edges of the front wall preferablyinclude side extensions 60, 60 which are folded over and against therear surface of the back wall to which such extensions are connected bysuitable adhesive 61 or the like; such adhesive may be in the nature ofthermoplastic or the transparent material of the envelope 56 may be madeof thermoplastic which may be connected together with a heat sealingprocess. The bottom edge adjacent the fold line 59 of the envelope 56 isprovided with notches 62 which register with notches 51 for embracingthe supporting rods 52, 52 so that the envelope 56 and the Visi-Recordsheets 42 may be arranged in the offset relation previously described sothat the identifying characteristics such as the name and socialsecurity number of each card is readily visible. Additional informationmay be placed in the envelope 56 between the Visi-Record 42 and thefront of rear walls 57 and 55 of the transparent envelope and suchmaterial may include a punch card 63 such as is conventionally used inpunch card sorting machines making such punch card readily available foruse and also making it possible to note its presence without removalfrom the envelope. It will be apparent that other items of informationmay be included in the transparent envelope 56. It should be observedthat the material of which the transparent envelope is formed ispreferably extremely thin and tough so as to avoid objectionablyincreasing the thickness of the record column, although, to effectivelyshow the structure, the thickness has been exaggerated.

In Fig. 12. a modified form of transparent envelope is shown to includea front wall 64, a rear wall 65 connected together by a strip ofadhesive tape 66 overlapping the side edges of the envelope, the pocketformed by the envelope receiving a Visi-Record 42 and both pocket andVisi-Record connected by notches as previously described to obtainproper registration.

The Visi-Record card may be a single card without folds and may havesorting perforations along its periphery including its top and sides sothat when the perforated Visi-Record cards are removed from thesupporting rods 52 (Fig. 9) of a file drawer or cabinet such cards maybe segregated according to the perforation and notch characteristicsthereof. After such segregation, the cards may be returned to the filedrawer or cabinet and placed on the supporting rods 52 as shown in Fig.9.

Referring to Figs. 9, 10A, and 12A, a modified form of Visi-Record card53 is shown as being a single-ply card having two rows of perforations53A and 53B, the lower portion of such card 53 being received in anenvelope formed of a front ply 53C and a rear ply 53D (Fig. 12A) whichare parts of the same sheet folded along the lower edge of the card 53.The side edge portions of the plies 53C and 531) are secured by adhesive53E, and the envelope is provided with perforations 53F and 536 whichregister with apertures 53A and 53B respectively whereby the Visi-Recordcards can be separated on the basis of perforations and notches providedon the card and/ or the envelope.

A modified form of card 54 (Figs. 9 and 10A) is provided with a seriesof apertures 54A along its sides and top edges to provide for separationand a pocket formed by a sheet of transparent plastic 54B is secured tothe rear face of the card 54 by means of adhesive 540 at the bottom edgeand side edges of the transparent sheet 54B and perforations areprovided in the sheet 5413 so that such perforations register with theperforations 54A of the card thereby providing for separation of suchVisi- Recor cards on the basis of the perforations therein. In thismodification the pocket formed by sheet 5413 does not extend to thebottom of the card and notches 54D in the bottom edges of such cardswhich register with bars 52 do not extend into the pocket.

The modified form of card 54 is shown with two series of apertures 54A,54B and such apertures may merge into notches 54F or 546 formed from theedge into the aperture or apertures to provide for hand needle sorting.

It will be evident that the transparent film may be made of any suitabletransparent material including acetate, polyester films or the like, andthat such films may extend over the apertures to reinforce the materialof the card.

A further modification of the invention is shown in Figs. 13 to 15inclusive, including a transparent envelope 67 having a front wall 68and a rear wall 69 connected by a fold 70 along the bottom and by theside edges 71, 71A of the front wall being folded over the side edges ofthe rear wall and secured thereto with an adhesive 72 or the like,thereby providing a pocket with the top thereof being open for insertionand removal of a filing card 73. The filing card 73 is provided withinformation desired including a plurality of identifying squares 74corresponding to adjacent perforations 75 in the upper edge portions ofthe front and rear 68 and 69 of the transparent envelope 67, certain ofsuch perforations being open at the extreme edge forming notches 76 forfacilitating separation of certain envelopes from others. Along one sideedge 71 of the envelope 67 a plurality of apertures 77 are providedwhich apertures may register with corresponding apertures 78 in the card73 for cooperation with binding means conventionally used in looseleaftype notebooks so that the cards will be maintained in the envelope.

It will be evident that additional information may be included in theenvelope besides the cards, such as photographs, speech recordings,microfilm, newspaper clippings and the like, and that such envelopes maybe separated in the manner previously described when the envelopes areremoved from their binder. It will also be evident that when the bindermeans loosely engage the material adjacent the apertures 77 and 78 aselection may take place while the envelopes are secured in the binderand the selected envelope may then be removed from the unselectedenvelope or the selected envelope may be made available for observationwithout removal from the binder by merely turning the unselectedenvelope away from the selected envelopes in the manner of turning pagesof a book.

Referring to Fig. 16, a similar envelope includes a front wall 79 andrear wall 89 connected together by side extensions 8-1, 81A which sideextensions project from the front wall 79 and against the front surfaceof the rear wall 84) being secured thereto by adhesive 82 or the like,suitable perforations and apertures being provided for the purposepreviously described.

In fragmentary Fig. 16A, another form of envelope for receiving a card82A includes a single sheet of material folded along a fold line at itsbottom edge providing a front ply 82B and a rear ply 820 with the sidemargins of such plies being connected by adhesive 82D. The card isprovided with binder ring receiving apertures 82B and the envelope isprovided with registering apertures 82F for also receiving the binderrings. In addition to having top selection apertures, the envelope isprovided with selection apeltures 826 on its left edge and selectionapertures 82H on its right edge thereby increasing the groups into whichthe envelopes can be segregated.

Referring to Figs. 17 to 19 inclusive, a modified form of envelopeincluding a front wall 83 and a rear wall 84 connected by a fold 85 andheld together by strips of adhesive tape 86, 86 along two edges isadapted to receive a card 87 or the like, and/or other material, andsuch envelopes may be separated from one another by perforations 88 someof which may be open to the edge forming notches 89 so that variousenvelopes may be separated from others by means of the conventionalneedle or key-sort devices. It will be apparent that perforations may beprovided in the strips of adhesive 86 so that openings adjacent theadhesive strips may also be used for separation.

Referring to the modification shown in Figs. 18A and 19A, a card 87 isreceived in an envelope formed of a front ply 89A and a rear ply 898secured together along its side and top edges by adhesive 89C over anarea of sufiicient width to provide for selection apertures 89D alongthe top and side edges.

In Figs. 20 to 22, a modified form of the invention may include a pairof cards 90, 91 which may be connected together along their bottomedges, such as by the cards being formed of a single sheet of materialscored along a line 923 for separation if desired. Both side edges 92,92A of cards and 91 may be secured by means of adhesive or the like. Asheet of transparent material including front wall 93 and rear wall 94connected together by fold 95 embraces the major portion of the cardsand is secured along its edges 96, 96A, 97, 97A by suitable adhesivepreferably within the outline of the cards, the top margin 98 of thecards and the side edges 92 and 92A being provided with perforations 99some of which may be open to the edge providing notches 100 forassisting in sorting as described above.

In Fig. 22A a modification of the pocket shown in Figs. 2222 includes aduplex card pocket formed of card ply 1011A and GB connected togetheralong a fold line similar to fold line 923 and secured by adhesive alongtheir end edges.

Over the duplex card 1011A, 10GB an envelope including a front ply 196Cand a-rear ply 199D connected by a fold line similar to fold 95 aresecured together along their end edges by layers of adhesive 109E to theadjacent edge portion of the duplex card and selection apertures IMF areprovided in the edge margins similar to apertures 99 and the selectionof cards is accomplished in a similar manner to that previouslydescribed.

Referring to Figs. 23 to 25, a further modification includes a card 101to which an envelope including a front wall 102 and a rear wall 103 isapplied. Such envelope includes a fold 104 against which the bottom ofthe card 101 rests, the envelope being retained on the card 1111 bymeans of strips of preferably transparent adhesive tape 105, 105 alongits side edges and, if desired, a strip 106 along the top edge of therear wall 1173 of the envelope. The pocket formed between the envelopeand the card 101 may receive various types of materials such as a datasheet 167 relating to the card. The card 191 is provided withperforations 111} along its top and side edges and certain of suchperforations may be open to the edges to form notches 111 for assistingin the sorting operation as previously described.

In Fig. A a modified form of card 112 is partially covered on its frontand back face by plies of transparent material 113, 114 connectedtogether along a fold line similar to fold 194 and the end edge marginsof such plies are connected by adhesive 115 to the card 112 and suitableselection apertures 116 are provided so that the filing units may beseparated in the manner previously described.

The selection apertures on any or all of the cards may have a single rowof perforations as shown in the Visi-Record card 54 and in the otherforms illustrated, or the selection perforations of each form of cardmay be in the form of two rows of perforations as shown on card 53.

It will thus be seen that applicant has provided a useful filing unitwhich may be provided with additional information other than informationthat can be directly applied to the filing unit, thereby avoiding thenecessity of duplicate files relating to the same specific subjectmatter and such filing units of the present invention may be readilyseparated from other filing units by a simple mechanical expedientwithout requiring a high degree of skill and without requiring readingof the material on the cards or the envelopes or pockets relatedthereto.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes maybe made in the invention without departing from the spirit and scopethereof and therefore the invention is not limited by that which isillustrated in the drawings and described in the specification, but onlyas indicated in the appended claim.

What is claimed is:

A hand-operated filing pocket of quadrilateral conformation adapted foruse in a filing system where one pocket may be selectively separatedfrom another by a hand-operated needle, comprising a singlesubstantially rectangular sheet of transparent material having a foldcentrally of the length to form the front and rear panel of said pocket,the edges of said front panel substantially coinciding with the edges ofsaid rear panel, said fold being along the longest side of the pocket,the opposing edges of the front and back panel adjacent the fold beingadhesively sealed together, said sealing extending substantially thelength from the fold to a point adjacent the open edge, the edgesopposite the fold of the pocket being open for insertion and removal offiling material, the front and rear panels having registering alignedapertures disposed in closely adjacent relationship along said opposingand said open edges of the pocket and extending substantially parallelto the edges, said adhesive sealing the edges adjacent the foldextending marginally inwardly beyond the apertures to circumscribedlyseal the opposing edges of the apertures of the front and back panel toeach other thereby providing a common passageway therethrough andpreventing any filing material within the pocket from intruding betweenthe opposing apertures and obstructing the path of a needle passingthrough the apertures, and the marginal sealing of the edges asubstantial distance inwardly also acting to restrain the panels of thepocket, when empty, in fiat intimate parallel contact with each other soas to consume a minimum amount of space.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

